Mount Hope Supervisor Matthew Howell and town board members arrived at a $2.5 million tax levy for the coming year following a budget workshop on Oct. 17.
The proposed levy is up by about $94,000 from the past year and stays under the state cap.
Since 2012, New York law has limited tax levy growth of local governments at either 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower; the Office of the Comptroller is tasked with calculating the allowable levy growth factor for each municipality.
For Mount Hope, the tax levy growth cap for next year was calculated to be about $95,000.
The proposed tax levy accounts for the general fund, highway fund, fire services, and Hidden Valley sewer fund; it doesn’t include the Howells Fire District, which is a separate taxing entity.
About $271,000 in fund balance is used to balance the budget.
“Instead of having the money in the bank, we are putting it to work to increase salaries for our employees and cover town operations without passing the full expenses to our residents,” Mr. Howell told The Epoch Times following the budget workshop.
All town employees get a pay raise in the preliminary budget based on their time working for the town, with increases ranging from 4 percent to 25 percent.
“We are fortunate to have some employees that have over 40 years of service here, and we want to take care of them with a nice pay raise,” Mr. Howell said. “Certain employees, based on their duration of service, have received a larger-than-expected raise because of their commitment to the town.”
Town Councilman Christopher Furman told The Epoch Times that despite the challenges posed by inflation and rising contractual burdens, the town managed to deliver a preliminary budget below the tax cap.
“With the expenses that are going on and things like insurance that are increasing, we are keeping that integrity and not cutting anything, and we are still investing in infrastructure and equipment,” he said.
A public hearing for the preliminary town budget is set for Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
